snekadid:"Stop telling people about our horribly broken game! It's hard to sweep this under a rug when people keep taking the tour!"

That's my thought as well.

You know, it is a worrying thing I see with these new games having too few servers, first it was Diablo 3 and now it's SimCity...how is one supposed to trust a game featuring online content and DRM to be playable? Reviewers surely don't have to deal with that problem (at least those playing it before the game launches to the common man) so they can't include any problems with that in their review. And if big companies are constantly undercutting their expected (I'm guessing they calculate this, doing otherwise would be foolish) need for servers, how can one trust them to give you a working product?

Ya know, Cliffy B recently released a press statement that, among other things, lamented the fact that people hate on EA while holding such goodwill towards valve. Perhaps he could take note of this debacle as just one example of why the ignorant masses don't afford EA the same kind of due respect as companies less cynical and lazy in the products they put out.

snekadid:"Stop telling people about our horribly broken game! It's hard to sweep this under a rug when people keep taking the tour!"

That's my thought as well.

You know, it is a worrying thing I see with these new games having too few servers, first it was Diablo 3 and now it's SimCity...how is one supposed to trust a game featuring online content and DRM to be playable? Reviewers surely don't have to deal with that problem (at least those playing it before the game launches to the common man) so they can't include any problems with that in their review. And if big companies are constantly undercutting their expected (I'm guessing they calculate this, doing otherwise would be foolish) need for servers, how can one trust them to give you a working product?

Well. Just about any credible reviewer would sort of hint at this happening before the game was released. Just look at the WTF is Simcity. Half the frikken review is about the drm and some of the caveats that follows in its wake.. <,<

Nah, not gonna happen. The campaign's only connection to the server are the achievements (which definitely will be busted, as they were in WoL's launch), but other than that you don't need to maintain connection to Battlenet to play it.

In combination with the horrendous launch of Diablo 3, can we now all agree that always on DRM in singleplayer games is a terrible idea with few, if any benefits? Especially seeing how much damage it has done to two highly revered franchises and how it has wrecked the goodwill of a large portion of the consumers?

WouldYouKindly:Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.

Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.

I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.

WouldYouKindly:Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.

Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.

I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.

Actually we broke Ubisoft when Valve decided to let all users who bought From Dust a no questions asked refund based on the DRM policy Ubisoft put in place. Ubisoft learned not because we complained but gave them money anyway, but because we showed them how many people wanted the product (initial sales) but are unwilling to put up with bulshit (amount of refunds within 24hrs.)

I refuse to install Origin on my lovely machine. To do so would be like rubbing shit over a brand new expensive suit...or deliberately infecting yourself with AIDS.That's right, EA is a horrible disease.

I'm not normally one to boycott or bitch about a company, but I really don't want to buy any EA products. Luckily, it's easy for me since I don't want any of the games they are currently publishing.

oh, really? every game should be online multiplayer only should it ea?

hmm

shame ya'll don't know your ass from your elbow when networking comes into itthat's right folks, the internet cannot support this kind of game! ( by itself at-least )

why? when packets get lost ( they inevitably do, by many means that i wont go into. ) things get out of sync and your game has irreparable conflictssaved in it's database ( you loose progress, get reset, loose items, resources failing to be retrieved, ect ect. )or it runs like a snail waiting for things to be re-sent

( ever had a webpage freeze, run like a slug or load a whole bunch of symbols and nonsense?, this is why things break, s&^t happens. )

now imagine sending a request every time anything happens in a game ( any variable change, position update, resource change, ect )times that by the number of people playing and the number of people co dependant on each other in a multiplayer sessionclearly then, it's a recipe for disaster

this is usually resolvable with custom networking systems, latency tolerant code, and some simplifications( ea chose the cheap option, you should note. )that's ontop of the fact that it's a brand new game and inevitably there will be some bugs in the code tooand when those bugs collide well be ready for your account to die.nobody can really predict what might happen, other than the generic game modifiable data gets erased or cant be resolved and crashes.( your cloud saves break )

the game will need to be re-coded to some degree or have a database sanitize-r ( google, i just don't believe that's a word. ) of some kind built into the server

and yes, as a matter of fact i have a copy of sybex windows networking on my desk right now!maby i should mail ea a copy.

You can tell things are bad when EA doesn't want any more peoples' money.

I have to wonder if things are so bad, they are trying to recode part of the game in a patch, instead of getting a lot of new hardware into the mix. If that's the case, I'm just waiting for the news of the patch server crashing due to the high demand too.

ViciousTide:Never going to post or view this website again, because this Star Craft 2 ad blocks up 90% of my screen when trying to comment.

because as we all are aware by now, there is no 'close' button on the top right hand corner of the ad.

dont worry, Im sure /vg/ will be more accommodating.

You have the perfect avatar for that response.

OT: Wow, this has gotten really out of hand for them. I didn't realize just how badly they fucked this up. I guess that's because one of my friends bought the game and he hasn't had any problems yet. He must have gotten pretty damn lucky by the looks of it.

ohnoitsabear:The plus side to this mess is that it seems highly unlikely that EA is going to try always-on DRM again anytime soon. The SimCity launch has just been too much of a disaster. Hell, this may even encourage other companies to not do similar things in the future.

We saw how well that worked out with Diablo 3.

Exactly. Folks can stomp their feet and yell all they want, but as long as they still buy these games developers and especially their publishers will keep doing it. I haven't bought any of these always-on DRM games and I wish more people didn't. The wallet's the only place where these publishers might listen.

ViciousTide:Never going to post or view this website again, because this Star Craft 2 ad blocks up 90% of my screen when trying to comment.

because as we all are aware by now, there is no 'close' button on the top right hand corner of the ad.

does not matter.ANY advertisement that pops up from its designated window to overlay any other information should not only be purged by fire but [and i thim im going into a warning territory here so ill stop]

Consumers gonna consume, and EA will probably not learn their lesson in that regard. I'm sure these broken-ass AAA games will sell more in their first month than FTL or The Witness ever will. But if EA is actually making a concerted effort to remove advertisements for the game, that means one irrefutable thing - they are losing enough money to be forced to take action.

I don't know where you guys are getting this... But I'm guessing that it was blown out of proportion by the EA hate machine. But EA is NOT refusing refunds anywhere. There was one case where a customer service rep fucked up and refused, but isolated incidents don't render company policy.

ohnoitsabear:The plus side to this mess is that it seems highly unlikely that EA is going to try always-on DRM again anytime soon. The SimCity launch has just been too much of a disaster. Hell, this may even encourage other companies to not do similar things in the future.

While it certainly sucks that loads of people can't effectively play something they paid sixty dollars for, I do think that SimCity's horrific launch will probably be good for the long-term, as it will probably reduce the amount of draconian DRM that companies use. And less draconian DRM is certainly good for the consumer.

Never under estimate the stupidity of both EA and corporations in general.